ED raids Punjab’s Fastway Cable network owner Gurdeep Singh
Enforcement Directorate officials say probing Gurdeep’s links with Surinder Pal Singh, a former chief engineer of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), in money laundering case
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the properties of Gurdeep Singh, the owner of Fastway Cable Network and Jujhar Bus Service, in Ludhiana under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Thursday morning.
Also read: Cable connection for ₹100 not feasible, say Punjab operators
ED officials said that they were probing Gurdeep’s links with Surinder Pal Singh, a former chief engineer of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA). Earlier this year, Surinder Pal Singh, alias Pehalwan, who is reportedly close to the Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, was booked by the ED in a money laundering case at its zonal office in Jalandhar on the basis of a Punjab Vigilance Bureau probe.
The VB arrested Pehalwan on June 9, 2017, after it found he allotted works of ₹1,200 crore at exorbitant rates. He was accused of parking his black money in accounts of bogus firms and family members.
Pehalwan joined the Punjab Mandi Board as a junior engineer in 1993. He became a superintending engineer in GMADA in 2014 and officiated as a chief engineer there from 2016. In September 2019, the VB attached 59 properties of the former GMADA chief engineer, amounting to ₹26 crore on the orders of a Mohali court.
The VB has filed four challans against Pehalwan and others in the case.
According to the VB probe, Pehalwan had registered three fake companies in the name of family members and made transactions of hundreds of crores through banks.
During his GMADA stint, he formed a fake construction company, Ek Onkar Builders and Construction Pvt Ltd, and illegally allotted tenders, thereby amassing illgotten money to the tune of ₹400 crore. He also bought properties in Ludhiana, Ropar, Mohali, and Chandigarh, amounting to ₹26 crore with the money.
The vigilance case against him and others was registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13 (1) (d) read with 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.